Author. 




Title 



Class 
Book* 



ffi.a82.^ 



Imprint 



1910 



Hr' 



LOCAL TAXATION 



NORTH CAROLINA 



FROM 1875 



THE PRESENT TIME. 



MARCH 10, 1910. 



C^N^'-^^-^-c»_ JSSUED^FROM THE OFFICE OF THE 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 
RALEIGH. 



GROWTH OF LOCAL TAXATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



Number local- 
Number local- 
Number local- 
Number local- 
Number local- 
Number local- 
Number local- 
Number local- 
Number local 
Number local- 
Total number 



tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
tax districts 
in State. Mar 



in 1875. 
in 18S0. 
in 1890. 



in 1900 18 

in 1904 ■ 227 

in 1905 329 

in 1906 423 

in 1907 587 

n 1908 687 

in 1909 975 

ch 10, 1910 995 



0- Of ^• 



^ 

v 






LOCAL TAXATION 



WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO GET IT. 

Under section 4115 of tile Public School Law of North Carolina, 
upon a petition of one-fourth of the freeholders residing therein, a 
special-tax district may be laid off within any definitely fixed 
boundaries, and upon approval of the said petition by the county 
board of education an election upon a special tax for the support 
of schools within that district, not to exceed thirty cents on the 
hundred dollars valuation of property and ninety cents on the poll, 
must be ordered by the board of county commissioners. If a ma- 
jority of the qualified voters vote for the special tax, said tax must 
be annually levied, and the funds arising from it must be placed to 
the credit of said special-tax district and be subject to the order 
of the school committee of said special-tax district for the benefit 
of the public schools of the district. An election, therefore, upon 
local taxation for the improvement of its public schools is thus 
placed within easy reach of any school district in North Carolina. 
The funds raised from this source axe, of course, in addition to all 
funds apportioned to the district from the general State and county 
fund. 

Blanks for petitions and election returns will be furnished upon 
application to the State or County Superintendent of Pubjic Instruc- 
tion. 

THE NEED OF IT. 

This business of public education is like any other great busi- 
ness. For successfully conducting it. enough capital must be in- 
vested in it to supply the necessary equipment and to employ the 
necessary number of competent, trained men and women to carry 
on the business according to modern, progressive business and 
professional principles. The average school term in the rural schools 
of North Carolina is 87.1 days. The average monthly salary of rural 
white teachers is $32.24 ; the average annual salary is $143.84. 

For better houses and equipment, better teachers and more of 
them, better supervision and longer school term, more money is 
the fundamental need. A special annual State appropriation of 
$225,000 has already been made by the General Assembly to pro- 
vide a four-months school term. It is evident, therefore, to any 
reasonable man that the only practical means of further increasing 
the school fund of any local school is special local taxation. Prac- 



tically all other States and all the communities of this State that 
have provided educational facilities adequate in buildings and equip- 
ment, length of term, number of teachers, salary and qualification 
of teachers and course of instruction to meet the demands of the 
age for the education of all the children have been compelled to 
resort to special local taxation to supplement the funds received 
from general taxation. More than 69 per cent of all the funds 
raised for public schools in the United States is raised by local 
taxation. In some States, like Massachusetts, having the best- 
equipped public schools, more than 95 per cent of the funds is raised 
by local taxation. In North Carolina the only cities, towns and 
rural communities that have succeeded in providing a system of 
schools, open eight or ten months in the year, adequately equipped 
with houses and teachers, have been compelled to supplement their 
State and county school funds by local taxation. The experience 
of other States and of these communities in our own State com- 
pels, therefore, the conclusion that the only hope of largely in- 
creasing the present available funds for rural schools, and thereby 
making these schools equal to the demands of the age for the educa- 
tion of 82 per cent of our population dwelling in the country, is to 
be found in the adoption of local taxation. 

POPULARITY AND SUCCESS OF IT IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

In 1900 there were in North Carolina only eighteen local-tax dis- 
tricts ; at present there are 995 local-tax districts. Six hundred and 
fifty of these are rural districts or incorporated villages of not more 
than five or six hundred inhabitants. All the cities, larger towns and 
most of the larger villages of this State have adopted local taxation. 
These local-tax districts are scattered from the seashore to the moun- 
tains, and are to be found in all counties of the State except seven. 

No town or district, after having given local taxation a fair trial, 
has, so far as we know, ever abandoned it permanently. A few 
that abandoned it temporarily readopted it after a few years. The 
communities that have adopted it will be found, as a rule, the most 
progressive and prosperous. These progressive communities, some 
of which have been bearing this additional burden of taxation for 
more than twenty years, would not continue voluntarily to bear 
it if they had not found that it paid financially, intellectually and 
morally. Local taxation would not have spread so rapidly among 
a conservative people like ours if the success of it had not been 
demonstrated in the object-lesson of the communities that have 
adopted it. 



SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF IT. 

1. Provides more money for better houses and equipment, longer 
terms, more teachers, better salaries, better teachers and better 
schools. 

2. More and better teachers and longer terms make possible bet- 
ter gradation and classification^ more rapid advancement and more 
thorough and extensive instruction. 

3. Preparation for college, or better preparation for life, through 
high-school training, may thus be obtained for all children at home, 
under the most favorable environment, at much less expense than 
■such preparation could be obtained for only a few children of the 
community at preparatory boarding schools out of the community. 

4. Good schools provided by local taxation are the best induce- 
ment to the best citizens to remain in a community where they can 
get the best advantages for the education of their children at home 
and the best advertisement for the best class of immigrants from 
other communities and other States to become residents of such a 
community. The tide of immigration and of prosperity flows from 
ignorant communities with poor schools to intelligent communities 
with good schools. 

5. Every cent of money, therefore, invested by local taxation in a 
better school, by inviting a better class of immigrants and prevent- 
ing the disastrous drain upon the best blood of the community by 
other communities with better facilities, enhances the value of every 
cent of property in the community by increasing the demand for 
renting and purchasing it by the best people. 

6. Every cent of money raised by local taxation for schools by 
any community remains in the community for the improvement of 
the cormnunity schools, and is invested, through better schools, in 
the minds, souls and characters of the rising generation, thereby 
increasing the general intelligence and efficiency of the entire com- 
munity and elevating its character intellectually and morally. 

7. It stimulates local pride and self-help ; it cultivates self-reliance, 
independence, public spirit and co-operative effort ; it makes the 
community feel that the school is distinctly the community's school, 
as well as the school of the State and county. 

8. It ties closer to the school in pride and interest every man 
that pays an additional cent of school tax, makes him feel more 
keenly his individual responsibility and his individual right to have 
his child in school, and quickens his natural instinct to get the 
worth of his money by sending his child to school. 

9. By providing longer terms, better equipment and better schools, 
it increases attendance and inspires public confidence. 

10. It is the cheapest and best way to educate any child, because 
it provides for his education at home, under the restraining influ- 



ence of home environment and in association and sympathy with 
the children of his home community. It is the only way to provide 
for the adequate education of all of the children. For less than it 
would cost the biggest taxpayer in almost any special local-tax dis- 
trict to send one child to any boai'ding school out of the community 
to be prepared for college, he could send all of his children, under 
more favorable environment, at home, and at the same time make it 
possible for his neighbors to get the same educational advantages 
at home for all of their children. 



'lite- 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






